The Second Dimension of a Miracle 2/14/2021
Glenn Massey
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Who He is
Who He is
In the Bible, there are words that refer to God, words that we capitalize and call “names,” but the truth is, they are not really His name.
Hebrew words like Elohim and El Shaddai are two such names. Yahweh, many consider this to be the proper name of God but, in fact, it is not.
It is what theologians refer to as the tetragrammaton, four letters, those four letter are YHWH. Yahweh is an assumed pronunciation, the latinized version would be Jehovah.
By pointing this out I am in no way disrespecting these “names”. But when we carefully pay attention to the details, we will grasp some profound truths.
Through out the OT there are other words that have been coupled with Jehovah that comprise compound names of God. We call them names, but they are not proper names.
Genesis 22:14 Jehovah-Jireh which means “the Lord will Provide”.
Exodus 15:26 Jehovah-Rapha, “the Lord our Healer”.
Exodus 17 Jehovah-Nissi, “the Lord our Banner”.
Judges 6 Jehovah-Shalom, “the Lord our Peace”.
Psalm 23 Jehovah-Raah, “the Lord our Shepherd”.
Jeremiah 23 Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “the Lord our Righteousness”.
Ezekiel 48 Jehovah-Shammah, “the Lord is Present”.
Each tell us Who God is and What God does.
While each one gives us insight into the identity of God and on what makes Him tick. They build toward revealing His name. The prophet Isaiah pointed toward the name that would be revealed when he wrote:
6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This is Jesus! Jesus is everywhere in the Bible.
In Genesis He’s the Seed of the Woman.
In 2 Kings He’s the jealous God.
In 1 Chronicles He’s our Reigning King.
In 2 Chronicles He’s our Deliverer.
In Ezra He’s the Faithful Scribe.
In Nehemiah He’s the rebuilder of Broken Walls.
In Esther He’s Mordecai at the Gate.
In Job He’s my redeemer who lives today.
In Psalms He’s the Lord who is my shepherd.
In Proverbs He’s our wisdom.
In Ecclesiastes He’s our True Satisfaction.
In Song of Solomon He’s the Beautiful Bridegroom.
In Isaiah He’s the suffering servant.
In Jeremiah He’s the righteous Branch.
In Lamentations He’s the weeping prophet.
In Ezekiel He’s the Son of Man.
In Daniel He’s the Fourth Man in the Furnace.
In Hosea He’s the Faithful Husband.
In Joel He’s the One who Restores.
In Amos He’s the Burden Bearer.
In Obadiah He’s the Mighty Judge.
In Jonah He’s the Foreign Missionary.
In Micah He’s our Peace.
In Nahum He’s the Avenger.
In Habakkuk He’s the Lord in His Holy Temple.
In Zephaniah He’s the Lord Mighty to Save.
In Haggai He’s the Lord of Hosts.
In Zechariah He’s the Fountain of Cleansing.
In Malachi He’s the Sun of Righteousness.
He is the King of Kings. All these are considered names, but understand the purpose, they were pointing to a single proper name. Jesus!
9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The Lord is one,” And His name one.
The name Jesus summarizes all of the attributes of our great God and Savior!
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
As the Son has been given, so has His name been given.
As Peter said in Acts 4:12.
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
When you call on the name of Jesus, you are calling on Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Rapha, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Shammah.
6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
If our great God was ever a rescuer, healer, deliverer, seeker of the lost, saver, shepherd, or anything else, then He still is!
You need Jesus…
If you need rescuing, you need Jesus.
If you need healing, you need Jesus.
If you need deliverance, you need Jesus.
Are you lost? You need Jesus.
Do you need saving? You need Jesus.
Is your life a mess? You need a good shepherd. You need Jesus!
Look at some one across from you and tell them “You need Jesus!”
Who He says you are
Who He says you are
For most of us who are here today or watching online we don’t struggle to believe who God is. We have no problem believing God is Who He says He is or that He can do what He says can do. We say things like “God is great! He is the Creator of heaven and earth!”
But we only know these things about Him because He told us in His Word. We say Jesus died for us and rose from the dead, but we only know these gospel facts because He told us so in His Word!
Only after we believe what He has told us do we experience what He has intended for us.
He promises to those who believe a new birth experience.
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Born of water is a reference to Baptism in Jesus name and being born of the Spirit is a reference to being filled with the Holy Spirit.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 cannot be taken out of the context of Jesus conversation with Nicodemus. He has promised this new birth experience to those who believe.
Peter confirms what Jesus told Nicodemus in Acts 2 when he is asked what must we do by some people who saw that God was moving on the 120 in the upper room.
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
You have to believe that promise is for you. You only come to believe because His Word says I have this promise for you. When you believe and are obedient to take action, repenting and being baptized in His name then He does what only He can do. Cleanses you of sins, and fills you with the Holy Spirit, and you know it has happened because you speak in a language you do not know, just like the people who received the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.
If you have not repented, you can repent today. If you have not been baptized in Jesus name, you can be baptized as soon as you are ready. If you have not received the Holy Spirit, you can receive it today.
If you have questions about what I am saying, we can have a Bible Study, just you and I to look at the promise God has for you.
But this is my point, we do not have a problem believing Him for what He says about Himself and what He will do. But when it comes to what He says about us, we don’t believe it.
In one breath we say “God is great.” In the next breath we say “I am a nobody!”, “God could never do anything with someone like me.”, “Bad things always happen to me.”, or “I don’t deserve anything from God.”
These things do not line up with what the Word of God says about you. They represent how we feel or the way we think things look at the time.
There is a gap between what God says about us and the way we actually live. The fullness of what God has promised us, both in His Word and in our hearts is not fleshed out in our everyday lives.
Too many believers are unaware of what God has already said about them, and the vast majority do not live up to it. He says we are one thing, but we live like we are something else.
This is referred to as the gap. The gap between what He says I am and what I say I am or how I live it. There are three different respects to truth:
Conceptual
Propositional
Incarnational
In the OT the plan of salvation for us through Jesus Christ was conceptual and became propositional. The birth of Jesus made it incarnational.
What God has conceived and proposed for us, we struggle to incarnate. The problem is not in His declaration, it is in our manifestation.
We are going to work to close that gap in our lives. The gap between who He says that we are, what He wants for us, and how we actually live our lives.
Paul’s Example
Paul’s Example
Let me give you an example of the gap that happens between God’s concept of us, what He proposes for us, and our living it (incarnation).
Saul and Barnabas are preaching and teaching on the Island of Cypress, John Mark, Barnabas cousin joined them on their journey to share the gospel. Cypress was the home of Barnabas.
Going from one end of the Island back to the other preaching they come to the city of Paphos. In this city is where the governor of the Roman province lived, Sergius Paulus, and he had heard of Saul and Barnabas. Desiring to hear their message he sent for them to come meet him.
As he listened to them preach about Jesus He began to believe, but Sergius Paulus had a Jewish sorcerer named Elymas who kept interfering trying to turn Sergius Paulus against Saul and Barnabas.
Saul finally got sick of it. Watch what happened.
9 Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
10 and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
11 And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Saul did not Elymas get away with undermining what God was doing in the heart of Sergius Paulus. Saul spoke and took action in the authority that God had given him.
You probably have never noticed it before. This is the first time Saul is referred to as Paul in scripture. From here on, he is called Paul. Never again are he and Barnabas referred to as Barnabas and Saul, they become known as Paul and Barnabas.
Paul enters this conflict as Saul, a prophet and teacher.
1 Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
He becomes Paul the Apostle to the gentiles.
What happened? I believe Saul went into this experience living as he saw himself. A prophet and teacher. But God had other plans for him. In Acts 9 at Saul’s conversion God already had conceived and proposed a plan for his life telling Ananias that Saul was a chosen vessel to go before gentiles.
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
Interesting enough, Saul is chosen for the gentiles but it would be Peter in Acts 10 that is used in presenting the gospel to the first gentile converts.
In Acts 13 we see a shift for Saul, going from having this conceptual and propositional destiny that God had said “this is who he is”, a chosen vessel for the gentiles, to Saul actually living in his calling.
There was a calling wrapped up in that name of Paul. Paul was his given name as a Roman citizen. When he started referring to himself as Paul the apostle to the gentiles, Saul was stepping into the calling God had already placed on his life.
Incidentally, this is Paul’s first recorded miracle in his amazing ministry that would be full of miracles. Could it be that Paul finally believed what God had been speaking over him the entire time?
You say, but that is Paul, I am not Paul.
Listen to my message today - Before you believed… God had you as a chosen vessel with a purpose to live out in His Kingdom. He had a conceptual plan for your life, when you began to believe He placed a propositional plan for your life in front of you, now He wants you to have enough faith to incarnate the purpose He has given you.
It may be -
Being a person of continual prayer.
Being a witness before others.
Teacher
Prophet
Preacher
Missionary
Pastor
Operating in the gifts of the Spirit
word of wisdom
word of knowledge
faith
healings
miracles
prophecy
discerning of spirits
speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
Serving children in Branches Kids
Helping to push the mission of the local church forward.
God has a plan and purpose for you!
Look at what His word already says about you in just one verse.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Under the law of Moses, royalty and the priesthood were separated from everyone who was considered common. He says you are not common, you are separated to me!
But is that how you see yourself? Is that how you live your life? As His own special people?
I want you to live in the plan and purpose God has for you. Starting with experiencing a new birth. Repenting of your sin, being baptized in Jesus name, and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Then living the new life God has given you. Grabbing hold of and believing what God has called you to for His purpose.